1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to cryptography accelerators. More specifically, the present application relates to methods and apparatus for making functions calls to various cryptography accelerators.
2. Description of Related Art
Software techniques for performing encryption and authentication operations, such as DES, RC4, MD5 and SHA1 operations have been inefficient and resource intensive. Many encryption and authentication operations are described in Applied Cryptography, Bruce Schneier, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (ISBN 0471128457), incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. The inefficiency has led to the development of a number of different cryptography accelerators for performing a variety of encryption and authentication operations. However, mechanisms for directly accessing various cryptography accelerators are limited.
It is therefore desirable to provide methods and apparatus for improving access to various cryptography accelerators.